Informed Design of Educational Activities in Online Learning Communities

2011 ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Urban Carlén ◽  
Berner Lindström
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Careers

The aim of this chapter is to sketch design implications for organizing online educational activities in higher education that will intentionally engage medical students and professionals in the field together. When using an online forum, which is already embedded in the work practice, participants can build an online learning community (OLC) to discuss specialist subjects. This chapter is based on findings derived from a larger case study about participation in a professional OLC in general medicine. The proposal of an educational activity will complement numerous online activities with a more structured form of learning. As long as participants are challenged in learning about the specialist subject, they will contribute to the collective account. Online participation can be one way to foster students in becoming doctors. Together with qualified professionals, medicine students can create and sustain relationships over their professional careers.

Designing Online Learning Communities to Encourage Cooperation

2011 ◽  
pp. 102-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Mowbray
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Technical Architecture

This chapter is concerned with how to design an online learning community in such a way as to encourage cooperation, and to discourage uncooperative or antisocial behavior. Rather than restricting design to visual and interface issues, I take a wide view, touching on aspects of the governance, social structure, moderation practices, and technical architecture of online learning communities. The first half of the chapter discusses why people behave antisocially in online learning communities, and ways to discourage this through design. The second half discusses why on the other hand people behave cooperatively in online learning communities, and ways to encourage this through user-centered design, applying some results of experiments in social psychology. The chapter is intended to be of practical use to designers of online learning communities.

Online Learning Community

2011 ◽  
pp. 1506-1511
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Kazmer
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Collaborative Culture ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Computer Mediated

The study and implementation of online learning communities emerges from two approaches related to the idea of “community.” The first approach was how people began to think about learning community, but not restricted to online settings. Learning community incorporates the idea of a cohesive, collaborative culture among members with the purpose of supporting individual learning by facilitating shared knowledge creation. The idea of a learning community, and its importance for improving learning, pre-dated most online learning, and the focus was on building communitiesto support learning regardless of setting. The second approach was that people began to inquire whether it was possible to build community online, but not for purposes restricted to learning. The idea that true community was possible via computer-mediated communication (CMC) was, and still is, contentious. However, as the years have passed since this question first emerged, the idea that community can be formed online has been increasingly accepted.

Hybridizing Online Learning with External Interactivity

2010 ◽  
pp. 24-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Morrow ◽  
Richard G. Bagnall
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Online Professional Development ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
On Line ◽  
External Learning ◽  
On Line Learning

One approach to hybrid learning is to hybridize online learning through recognizing and including external interactivity. This chapter examines that possibility. After reviewing the nature of interactivity and individual learner experience in online learning communities, it presents a recent study of interactivity in online professional development learning by practising teachers. From that study emerges the importance and scope of external interactivity between the learner and his or her local community of colleagues, friends, and family in a learning community beyond the traditional online class. Building on that case study, and indications from the literature that its implications may be generalizable, the chapter suggests ways in which external interactivity can be recognized and included in the online learning environment – as a way of hybridizing on-line learning through its inclusion of learners’ interactive engagements in the external learning communities that they bring to their studies.

Fostering Effective Learning Community in the Online Classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. 1786-1802
Author(s):  
Mary I. Dereshiwsky
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Faculty Concerns ◽  
Face To Face Learning

Online learning communities are an important aspect of successful virtual learning experiences. They bring opportunities for peer collaboration and sharing of ideas in a globally based classroom unrestricted by time and space. At the same time, online learning community participants may face some challenges of effective communication and collaboration as compared to traditional face-to-face learning environments. The author discusses issues, concerns, and potential solutions with regard to online learning communities in the areas of discussion participation, group work on assignments, faculty concerns, and miscellaneous issues such as technology access. Maximizing the potential of online learning communities will facilitate higher-order learning in the technologically mediated twenty-first century classroom.

scholarly journals A Proposed Framework for the Growth of Online Learning Communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nevine Mahmoud Fayek El Souefi
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

AbstractThe abrupt shift to full online learning due to COVID-19, displaced students and teachers, created multiple barriers in teaching and learning, and caused some instructors not being able to build and maintain an online learning community. This situation resulted in students’ detachment from their instructor and peers causing lack of motivation and increase of failure chances. First the paper explores the challenges and opportunities of building and online learning community highlighting the needs, and reviewes some past frameworks in the field. Second, a framework is proposed that identifies four factors that help the growth of online learning communities. Those facots are; teacher presence, social presence, cognitive presence and students’ emotional engagement. Further the framework  specifies type of actions and activities that teachers/instructors should be adopting throughout the course.  The paper adds to the growing knowledge on Coronavirus effects on the educational sector and highlights the need for the efficeint use of technology in education.

The Key Elements of Online Learning Communities

2010 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Jianxia Du ◽  
Yunyan Liu ◽  
Robert L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Media Choices

An online learning community can be a place for vibrant discussions and the sharing of new ideas in a medium where content constantly changes. This chapter will first examine the different definitions that researchers have provided for online learning communities. It will then illuminate several key elements that are integral to onlinelearning communities: interactivity, in both its task-driven and socio-emotional forms; collaboration, which both builds and nurtures online communities; trusting relationships, which are developed primarily through social interaction and consist of shared goals and a sense of belonging or connectedness; and communication media choices, which impact the other three elements. This chapter also provides suggestions for the practical application of these elementsin the online classroom.

Fostering Effective Learning Community in the Online Classroom

2018 ◽  
pp. 203-219
Author(s):  
Mary I. Dereshiwsky
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Online Classroom ◽  
Online Learning Community ◽  
Online Learning Communities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Faculty Concerns ◽  
Face To Face Learning

Online learning communities are an important aspect of successful virtual learning experiences. They bring opportunities for peer collaboration and sharing of ideas in a globally based classroom unrestricted by time and space. At the same time, online learning community participants may face some challenges of effective communication and collaboration as compared to traditional face-to-face learning environments. The author discusses issues, concerns, and potential solutions with regard to online learning communities in the areas of discussion participation, group work on assignments, faculty concerns, and miscellaneous issues such as technology access. Maximizing the potential of online learning communities will facilitate higher-order learning in the technologically mediated twenty-first century classroom.

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